Method and apparatus for remote game play with real-time commentary

ABSTRACT

This invention allows the players of multiplayer games like poker, chess, backgammon, go, board games, and video games to play the game online while commenting on the game and explaining their strategies to an online audience without sharing that information with their opponents.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a technical solution forenabling private and public communications among a group of individualsin different roles while playing an online game. The present inventionallows the players to comment on the game and explain their strategiesto a remote audience without sharing that information with theiropponents.

BACKGROUND

Broadcasts of poker tournaments have become very popular since ways weredevised to show each player's hidden “in-the-hole” cards to the camerawhile not allowing the competing players to see them and thus get anunfair advantage. The first method for exposing the cards to theaudience involved glass plates in the tables in front of each player.Each player was required to slide their cards over the plate, to be seenby the camera below and broadcast to a television audience. Latertechnology involved cameras built into the sides of the poker tables.When the poker player lifted the cards to see them, the cards werebroadcast to a television audience by the camera in the table. Moderntechnology has radio-frequency identification (RFID) transmittingcircuitry built-into the playing cards and RFID detectors in the table.Each card's RFID circuit transmits the card number and suit to the RFIDreceiver in the table. This information is transmitted to a computerthat compiles the information from all of the players and allows thatinformation to be superimposed on the broadcast screen of the game.

If the card information were to be seen by another player, or seen by aplayer's accomplice and transmitted to a player, it would give thatplayer an unfair advantage, so the broadcasts of the games are delayedby minutes. They can also be recorded and delayed by much longer timessuch as days or months.

One of the exciting features of televised poker games is the commentaryby the announcers. These announcers are veteran poker playersthemselves, and they surmise why each play was made, its probability ofsucceeding, and what the player was most likely thinking when making amove. To become a better player, and to understand the game better andthus enjoy the game more, the audience members would prefer to hear fromthe players themselves to describe what the player was thinking at themoment of each play and to learn strategies directly from the players.However, speaking at the table would reveal the player's strategy totheir opponents during the game, which would surely lead to theirdefeat. The games could be recorded and played back with the playersreviewing the hands and providing after-the-fact commentary, but withhundreds of hands played in each hour, it would be difficult for theplayers to recall their thinking for each hand. Plus, this post-gamecommentary would require players and broadcasters to more than doublethe amount of time they spent on each game, significantly increasing thecosts of broadcasting the games.

To optimize the game viewing experience, there needs to be a means tohear the thoughts of the players themselves, in a way that does notchange the game by revealing competitive information to their opponents.The method for doing this should apply equally well to poker, chess,backgammon, go, board games, video games, and all multiplayer games.

A simple solution would be to put poker players in separate recordingbooths while they play, without visual access to each other, but thissolution has a problem. A solution is needed that also enables the pokerplayers to see each other at the game table because in poker inparticular, viewing the other players gives clues about their state ofmind and is critical to determining strategy. Some players watch otherplayers' speech patterns, hand motions, facial tics, and even thepulsing of blood through veins on their neck. Plus, poker is a socialgame with banter and “smack talk” that enlivens the game not only forthe players but for the audience.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and not by wayof limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings and in which:

FIG. 1 shows a typical prior art video conferencing system that allowsgame players to see game play and to communicate with each other.

FIG. 2 shows the client display on a computer monitor of a typical priorart video conferencing system that allows game players to see game playand to communicate with each other.

FIG. 3 shows a picture of a prior art television or Internet broadcastof a live action poker game.

FIG. 4 shows one embodiment of an observer or viewer display for thepresent invention.

FIG. 5 shows one embodiment of a player display for the presentinvention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for one embodiment of media communication of thepresent invention between players, observers, and a master during normaloperation.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for one embodiment of media communication of thepresent invention to viewers.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for one embodiment of an implementation ofcommunication logic of the present invention inside a viewer client.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for one embodiment of the control communication ofthe present invention between the game server and the observer clients.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for one embodiment of the internal architecture ofthe game server application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the invention are directed to a method and system forprivate and public communications among a group of individuals indifferent roles while playing an online game. Embodiments of theinvention make use of a basic knowledge of video conferencing,electronic communication, and computer programming.

Some portions of the detailed descriptions that follow are presented interms of processes and symbolic representations of operations on databits within a computer memory. These descriptions and representationsare the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts toconvey the substance of their work most effectively to others skilled inthe art. A process is here, and generally, conceived to be aself-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result. The stepsare those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities.Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form ofelectrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred,combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenientat times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to thesesignals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers,or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the followingdiscussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description,discussions utilizing terms such as “communicating,” “transmitting,“receiving,” “executing,” “passing,” “determining,” “generating,” or thelike, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similarelectronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms datarepresented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computersystem's registers and memories into other data similarly represented asphysical quantities within the computer system memories or registers orother such information storage, transmission or display devices.

Embodiments of the invention also relate to an apparatus for performingthe operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed forthe required purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computerreadable storage medium, such as, but not limited to, floppy diskettes,optical disks, compact disc read-only memories (CD-ROMs),magneto-optical disks, optical disks, semiconductor read-only memories(ROMs), semiconductor random access memories (RAM), programmableread-only memories (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memories(EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROM),magnetic cards, optical cards, flash memories, or the like.

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specializedapparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structurefor a variety of these systems will appear as set forth in thedescription below. In addition, the present invention is not describedwith reference to any particular programming language. It will beappreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used toimplement the teachings of the invention as described herein.

The present invention describes a system and method that allow pokerplayers to be in separate locations while they play, but enables thepoker players to see each other at the game table while talking to eachother and giving audio commentary on the game that can be heard byobservers or viewers but not by other players. There is a control thatallows each player to select whether to give audio commentary only tothe observers and viewers or to give audio commentary to the observers,viewers, and players. There is also a game master that controls overallaccess to audio and video and can mute or hide various players if theyare found to be violating game rules or other constraints.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a prior art video conferencing system in theexemplary form of the Network 100 that connects User 1 Computer 101 withUser 2 Computer 102 and User 3 Computer 103 to Video Conference Server104 via connections 105, 106, 107, and 108 respectively. Network 100 canbe the Internet, a company intranet, or any other kind of computernetwork. Connections 105, 106, 107, and 108 can be wired connectionssuch as Ethernet over category 5 (Cat5) cables or wireless connectionsuch as Wi-Fi or other wired or wireless connections or combinationsthereof. Video, audio, pictures, documents, control information, andother information are transmitted from video conferencing clientsoftware running on User 1 Computer 101 via the Network 100 to videoconferencing server software running on Video Conference Server 104. Theinformation is processed and relayed to video conference client softwarerunning on User 2 Computer 102 and User 3 Computer 103 where theinformation is displayed. Similarly, video, audio, pictures, documents,control information, and other information are transmitted from videoconferencing client software running on User 2 Computer 102 via theNetwork 100 to video server software running on Video Conference Server104 where the information is processed and relayed to video conferenceclient software running on User 1 Computer 101 and to video conferenceclient software running on User 3 Computer 103 where it is displayed onboth computers. The system can consist of a minimum of two usercomputers and no maximum number of user computers except where thesystem is constrained by the bandwidth of Network 100, memory size orprocessing power of Video Conference Server 104, or other technicalconstraints that would be known to one of ordinary skill in the art.

The present invention is a specialized video conferencing system forgame players, where users can be categorized as players, observers,viewers, and masters, each with different functionality. The presentinvention comprises five different applications: Client Observer App,Client Player App, Client Master App, Client Viewer App, and Game ServerApp. The Client Observer App is used by people observing the game inreal time but not playing the game. The Client Player App is used bypeople playing the game. The Client Viewer App is used by people viewinga recording of the game. The Client Master App is used by peoplesupervising the game. The Game Server App is run on a network server tocontrol communication among all the running client apps.

FIG. 2 shows a prior art Video Conference Client App for allowingcommunication between participants. The software application runs onClient Computer 200. The Video Conference Client Application Display 201incorporates a view of the participants. One such view of a participantis labeled Participant 202. Video Conference Client Application Display201 can be arranged in different manners to show all participants, onlythe participant who is currently speaking, or some subset ofparticipants as determined by internal settings of the software combinedwith user settings determined by each individual user of the videoconference client software. At the bottom of the Video Conference ClientApplication Display 201, there are a set of Video Conference UserControls 203 that include an audio mute button and a video displaybutton. The audio mute button allows the Video Conference Client Appuser to allow the audio from the user's local microphone to be heard byall other participants in the video conference or to mute themselves toall other participants. The video display button allows the VideoConference Client App user to allow the video from the user's localvideo camera to be seen by all other participants in the videoconference or to block transmission of the video to all otherparticipants (i.e., “hide” the user). Typically, there is also a singleconference master user who can use their own Video Conference ClientMaster App to force the muting of audio from any other particular useror group of users to all other participants or to hide any particularuser or group of users to all other participants.

As an exemplary description in this patent, the game of Texas Hold'Empoker is used for illustration purposes only. Other variations of pokeras well as other multiplayer games such as chess, checkers, backgammon,or video games are also applicable. One of ordinary skill in the artwould know that the differences in these games would be insubstantialwith respect to how the present invention is implemented.

A basic, and simplified description of the game of Texas Hold'Em is asfollows. The dealer deals each player two “hole cards” face down, whichthe player views but keeps hidden from the other players. After a roundof betting, the dealer then deals three “common cards” face up on thetable for all players to see. These first three cards are called the“flop.” There is a second round of betting, after which the dealer dealsanother common card face up on the table. This card is called the“turn.” After another round of betting, the dealer deals a final commoncard face up on the table. This card is called the “river.” There isthen one last round of betting for the hand. During a round of betting,a player may bet if no player has yet bet for this round, the player may“fold,” which means exits from the hand and release their cards, theplayer may “check,” which means make no bet if no player has yet bet inthis round, the player may “call,” which means bet the same amount ofthe bet of the previous player, or the player may “raise,” which meansincrease the amount of the bet made by the previous player. At the endof all betting, the players who are still in the hand reveal their holecards. The winning player is the one with the best poker hand consistingof any combination of 5 cards from among 7 cards consisting of theirhole cards and the common cards.

FIG. 3 shows a picture of a prior art television or Internet broadcastof a live action Texas Hold'Em poker game. Poker Players 301 through 309sit around the Poker Table 300. The Dealer 310 deals the cards. In oneembodiment, a camera is embedded in the rail of Poker Table 300 in frontof each player to record the player's cards. In another embodiment, aglass plate is embedded in the table in front of each player with acamera beneath it so that when the player rests their cards on theplate, the camera records the cards through the glass plate. In yet athird embodiment, there is an RFID receiver for each player that sensesthe RFID chip embedded in the player's cards to identify the cards. Thecards of the players still in the game at any point, until the playerhas folded their hand, are displayed on the left side of the screen inPlayer Card Display 311. The common cards that have been placed on thetable are displayed on the right side of the screen in Table CardDisplay 312.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the observer and viewer seean identical display even though the application that controls thedisplay is different and the user controls have some differences, asdescribed later in this spec. FIG. 4 shows one embodiment of anObserver/Viewer Display 400 for the present invention, which shows eachplayer, with a particular player labeled Player 401, and each player'shole cards, with a particular player's hole cards labeled Player HoleCards 402, the Common Cards 403 on the table, and Observer/ViewerControls 404. The Observer/Viewer Controls 404 allow an observer orviewer to select one particular player to listen to. The Observer/ViewerControls 404 also allow an observer or viewer to listen to a commentatorfor the game who is not playing the game. The observer or viewer canswitch between all available audio sources, consisting of all playersand all other commentators. The Observer/Viewer Controls 404 also allowan observer or viewer to select one particular player to watch moreclosely. For example, the controls may allow one player's video to beenhanced by making it larger than the others on the display.

The Master Display looks exactly like Observer/Viewer Display 400 exceptthere are additional controls (not explicitly shown) to mute anyplayer's audio from reaching other players and observers or viewers,hide any player's video from reaching other players and observers orviewers, and to take any player out of the game, by disabling thatplayer's client app, for violation of conditions of the game or otherreasons.

FIG. 5 shows one embodiment of a Player Display 500 for the presentinvention. Like the Observer/Viewer Display 400, the Player Display 500shows each player, with a particular labeled Player 401, and the CommonCards 403 on the table. The Player Display 500 also shows the AssociatedPlayer 501 and only shows Associated Player Hole Cards 503 for theparticular player who is using the display, but does not show hole cardsfor any other players because that would take all of the skill out thegame by displaying each players hidden cards to the other players. Also,there is a mouth veil bar on the video of each player that covers theplayers mouth, with an example labeled Mouth Veil Bar 504, so that eachplayer can observe the other players and look for “tells,” but the otherplayers' lips cannot be read while they comment on the game to observersand viewers. A player can adjust his or her own mouth bar on the screen,using the Player Controls 502, so that the player can assume apersonally comfortable position and adjust the bar over his or hermouth. The players have incentive for adjusting the bar correctly so asnot to give away their comments about the play to the other players,which would otherwise result in a significant disadvantage.

One of ordinary skill in the art would know that alternatives for MouthVeil Bar 504 are possible. One such alternative embodiment is to includevideo processing software in the Player Client App that includes adetector for detecting the player's mouth and a masker for covering theplayer's mouth or blurring the player's mouth on the video display ofeach other player. Another alternative embodiment is to have the playerswear masks over their mouths, inserting a microphone, if necessary, tocapture their audio comments. Many poker players in live games alreadycover their mouths with bandannas, sweatshirt collars, or stretchysleeves, so this would not be seen as an unreasonable burden.

The Player Controls 502 allow a player to mute their own comments to theobservers and viewers if necessary, for example to cover a cough orsneeze, though players would be encouraged to comment often throughoutthe game. The Player Controls 502 allow a player to communicate eitherto the observers and viewers or to the observers, viewers, and all otherplayers in the game. For fairness, and to avoid collusion, players donot have an option to communicate directly to other players without alsocommunicating to the observers and viewers. Player Controls 502 alsoallow a player to draw and write on the screen in order to illustrateconcepts to the observers or viewers. The drawing and writing would beseen by observers and viewers but not by other players.

FIG. 6 is a diagram of audio and video communication between players,observers, and master in one embodiment during normal operation.Throughout this specification, the term media will be used to mean acombination of audio and video. Player Client App for Player X 601,Player Client App for Player Y 602, and Player Client App for Player Z603 all transmit media signals to Game Server App 600, represented bylabels MedX, MedY, and MedZ, respectively. Game Server App 600 combinesMedX, MedY, and MedZ into a signal labeled MedAll. Game Server App 600transmits media signal MedAll, to Master Client App for Master 607. Thisallows the master to determine if any media is inappropriate and if so,mute any player, hide any player, or remove any player from the game.

Game Server App 600 also transmits media signal MedAll to ObserverClient App for Observer X 604, Observer Client App for Observer Y 605,Observer Client App for Observer Z 606, and Observer Client App forObserver A 608. Observer X is always observing Player X. This means thatif there is any enhanced video on the screen for a single player,Observer X sees the enhanced video for Player X. It also means thatObserver X always hears audio from Player X. Similarly, Observer Y isalways observing Player Y, Observer Z is always observing Player Z, andObserver A is always observing the active player, that being the one whois acting in the game (i.e., the one whose turn it is to bet, check,call, raise, or fold).

Observer Client App for Observer X 604 captures the screen showing thecards, the chips, the players, and the media for Player X and saves thatscreen capture, including audio, to Disk 609. Observer Client App forObserver Y 605 similarly saves its screen capture to Disk 609. ObserverClient App for Observer Z 606 similarly saves its screen capture to Disk609. Observer Client App for Observer A 607 captures the screen showingthe cards, the chips, the players, and the media for each acting playerand saves that screen capture, including audio, to Disk 609. Disk 609resides on a separate computer from the computer that hosts the ObserverClient App whereby storing the screen capture may involve first savingthe screen capture locally and then transmitting the screen capture overa network from the Observer Client App to Disk 609.

Because broadcasting multiple players at multiple tables to a largenumber of observers in real-time requires a very large amount of networkbandwidth, and can be very expensive when broadcasts are charged perobserver, in this embodiment the number of observers is equal to thenumber of players plus one additional observer for each table. However,a large number of viewers may watch the game that was recorded by thevarious observers. Although the diagrams show only three players andfour viewers, the model is easily understood by one of ordinary skill inthe art as applying to configurations with two or more players and threeor more viewers.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of media communication to viewers in one embodimentof the present invention. The screens and audio have been captured forvarious perspectives and stored on Disk 609 by each observer asdescribed above. The screens and audio of all observers are thencombined into signal MedScreenAll and streamed on demand to each viewer.In other words, each viewer can watch the game play at any time. Theviewer selects which observer's perspective to extract from the stream,using Viewer Controls 404, and the selected perspective is displayed viathe Viewer Client App 400.

FIG. 8 is a diagram of an implementation of communication logic of thepresent invention inside Viewer Client App 701. In the example shown,the viewer has decided to watch and listen to Player X and sodemultiplexer DEMUXv 800 is configured to extract screen capture signalMedScreenX, which includes video and audio of player X, from combinedscreen capture signal MedScreenAll, and send the signal to the viewer'sdisplay and speakers. At any time while watching the game, the viewermay decide to watch and listen to a different player and may click on abutton on Viewer Controls 404 to reconfigure DEMUXv 800 to extractscreen capture signal MedScreenY, for example, which includes video andaudio of player Y, from combined screen capture signal MedScreenAll, andsend the signal to the viewer's display and speakers.

FIG. 9 is a diagram of the control communication of the viewers of thepresent invention. Each Viewer Client App transmits control selectioninformation to the Game Server App 600, which in turn controls thecommunication of media between viewer clients and Disk 609. Controlsignals sent between Game Server App 600 and Viewer Client App 701 forViewer 1 are labeled Ctrl1. Control signals sent between Game Server App600 and Viewer Client App 702 for Viewer 2 are labeled Ctrl2. Controlsignals sent between Game Server App 600 and Viewer Client App 703 forViewer 3 are labeled Ctrl3. Control signals sent between Game Server App600 and Disk 609 are labeled CtrlD.

FIG. 10 is a diagram of the internal architecture of Game Server App600. Control Logic 1400 contains the main control logic. Poker Logic1401 implements all of the poker game play including dealing cards,running games, handling betting, timing play, and keeping track ofchips. Client Interface 1402 communicates with all of the player,observer, viewer, and master client apps via a network. AdvertisingDatabase 1403 keeps track of ads from sponsors. Advertising Logic 1404controls which clients see which advertisements and at which timesduring game play. Observer Database 1405 keeps track of informationabout all observers that have used the system. Observer Logic 1406controls information entered into the Observer Database 1405 andextracted from it. Player Database 1407 keeps track of information aboutall players that have used the system. Player Logic 1408 controlsinformation entered into the Player Database 1407 and extracted from it.Viewer Database 1409 keeps track of information about all viewers thathave used the system. Viewer Logic 1410 controls information enteredinto the Viewer Database 1400 and extracted from it.

Advertisements from sponsors of the games can be transmitted to viewersvia control by Game Server App 600 that are then displayed on eachViewer Display 400. A single advertisement can be transmitted to allviewers or to groups of viewers or to individual viewers based on theirpreferences. Such preferences can be determined by many different meansincluding, but not limited to, a survey taken by the viewer when signingup for the system, the viewer's interactions with the system during gameplay, interaction of the viewer with previous advertisements, and otheractivities that are recorded on the viewer's computer, during andoutside of game play, such as videos watched, products purchased, anditems searched for. Advertisements can be transmitted at predeterminedtimes under the control of the Game Server App 600, for example duringbreaks in the game play.

Observers, viewers, players, and masters can use their client app toquery Player Database 1407 via control signals sent to Game Server App600 to retrieve information about players that will be displayed ontheir app display. This allows observers, viewers, players, and masterto see statistics about players' standing in the current game, lifetimewinnings, total tournament entries, rankings in online poker, rankingsworldwide, and other information about players.

One of ordinary skill in the art would know that the present inventioncan be implemented in hardware, software, or combinations thereof.

In the preceding description, numerous details are set forth. It will beapparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present inventionmay be practiced without these specific details. In some instances,well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form,rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring the presentinvention.

I claim:
 1. A computer-implemented method for a game server to providecommentary on remote game play, the method comprising: receiving audioor video media from multiple players via a network; combining saidreceived audio or video media into a combined audio or video mediasignal via a multiplexer; receiving from a master via said network asignal indicating one or more of said multiple players; removing audioor video media of said indicated one or more of said multiple playersfrom said combined audio or video media, via a demultiplexer; displayingsaid combined audio or video media within a game application; capturingaudio or video output of said game application as play is occurring;storing said captured audio or video output to a storage device;receiving a request from a remote viewer; and transmitting said storedcaptured audio or video output to said remote viewer.